


Love looks with the mind

by whopooh



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: F/M, Flashfic challenge, blind date au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:27:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22401766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whopooh/pseuds/whopooh
Summary: Jack has been set up to go on a blind date, by none other than his colleague Doctor Macmillan. Why isn't he enjoying himself more?For the flashfic challenge and the prompt "Blind date AU".NB: Anyone who wants to join the flash fic challenge, there'll be three more heats today! You can check out the info here: https://mfmmflashchallenge.tumblr.com/post/190425907313/just-one-more-week-until-the-mfmm-flashfic
Relationships: Elizabeth MacMillan & Jack Robinson, Phryne Fisher & Elizabeth MacMillan, Phryne Fisher/Jack Robinson
Comments: 34
Kudos: 117
Collections: Miss Fisher's Flashfic Challenge Heat 1





	Love looks with the mind

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU where Jack and Phryne both know Mac, but they don’t know each other. It's a little bit vague on where it’s set in time.

When Jack arrived at the restaurant, he was incredibly anxious. How had he been conned into a blind date? He, who had said he would never date again? 

But the steady look in Doctor Macmillan’s eyes when she’d assured him her idea was brilliant was impossible to resist. Especially as she’d aimed it at him over a corpse, just after a successfully closed case. If your favourite coroner tells you she has a plan, in the end you relent, don’t you?

And if you don’t immediately, you do when her blue eyes pierce you and she says that you owe her, after that time you woke her up in the middle of the night to deal with a messy corpse that had been laying in the Yarra for far too long.

So, here he sat, conversing a beautiful lady over a meal.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t nice, or pretty, or a rather good conversationalist, because she was all those things. Her eyes exuded kindness and intelligence. Her smile was slightly dreamy. They’d talked about his work and hers, and he’d tried to explain the joy of working a case. The _thrill_ when you realise that you’re about to catch your culprit. 

She had very obviously enjoyed the way he hadn’t managed to keep his passion about work at bay.

The food was good, the wine was nice – although perhaps he’d had slightly too much of it, since he’d begun to have trouble finding new topics to talk about.

He eyed his date, wondering why Doctor Macmillan had been so set on them meeting. Yes, she was pretty and nice, but there wasn’t really any “zing” between them, were there? She was too naturally kind, he found himself thinking, wondering what in the world that said about him. There wasn’t any… edge. And wasn’t she too young for him? Simply too innocent?

When had this become a thing? He took a deep gulp of his wine, almost choking on it. When had he started to prefer women to not be too innocent? He pondered his thoughts, only listening with half an ear to his date’s view on the latest moving pictures. He supposed it must have happened sometime between him wooing his wife and divorcing her fifteen years later. Somewhere, his heart had become calloused enough to not want innocence and sweetness – or at least not only that.

And poor Miss Williams, who Doctor Macmillan for some reason thought would be the perfect match for him – she seemed to be steeped in innocence and sweetness.

Jack’s eyes started to wander. 

The restaurant was almost full, and his mind couldn’t help but assess the other patrons. Were they too on dates? To his left there was an old couple who were obviously married; they had that combination of fondness and not really needing to talk all that much, already knowing the other’s view on everything. Further on, a family of four, where the children were nagging their parents about when dessert would arrive. Next to them… 

His gaze met two beautiful, intense, blue-green eyes that seemed to look straight into his soul. He just about managed not to gasp out loud. He quickly looked back at his date, trying to really listen to the plot of the latest movie about… was it a goat herder? 

Two heartbeats later, his eyes were back on the woman at the other table, studying her. She had black hair cut in a fashionable bob, adorned by a silver piece to make a stunning contrast. The laugh lines around her eyes as she talked spoke of a woman knowing enjoyment and fun. She had to be approximately his own age, and there was something in the way she held herself that was positively alluring. 

She was obviously on a date. The gentleman in question looked young, and a little bit out of his depth, struggling to keep up with her conversation. When she laughed her hearty, joyful laugh – that sent small flashes of excitement down Jack’s spine – the young man joined in nervously. 

Jack was intrigued. The pair didn’t look particularly well matched. And just as he’d thought that, the black-haired woman shot him another glance. He got the impression she didn’t want to be impolite to her date, but also that she had become intrigued by Jack. He blushed slightly.

When the woman excused herself to head to the bathroom queue, Jack surprised himself by doing the same. Apologising to Miss Williams, he soon found himself standing behind the woman and admiring her half-exposed back.

After a second, she turned around.

“Miss Phryne Fisher,” she said, reaching out her hand to him; he shook it. “A pleasure to meet you, handsome stranger.”

“Jack Robinson,” he replied, a little stunned at her forwardness.

She smiled a small smile and continued.

“Are you here on a date, Mr Robinson?”

“It’s Inspector, actually.” His title made her tilt her head. He sent a quick glance at the table he’d left and replied. “And yes, it would seem so.”

“Does it happen to be a blind date, by any chance?”

He studied her elegantly raised eyebrow for a second before replying.

“It is. How did you guess?”

She ignored his question.

“And does this, by any chance, happen to be set up by a… shall we say… brilliant red-haired lady with a certain… stubborn persuasion?”

Jack could feel his eyes widen.

“How did you know?”

Miss Fisher looked speculatively on him.

“Are you at the City South? Have you been working with Mac for a while?”

Mac? Oh, he might have heard that nickname used once or twice. She must know Doctor Macmillan rather well, then?

“Several months, yes.”

“I knew it!” she exclaimed. “We’re being set up!”

“Well, I am on a blind date, that is rather the premise.”

“No, I mean _we’re_ being set up. She never meant for you to hit it off with that girl on your date. She’s sweet and attractive, but she’s far too young for you. And my date, Mr Collins, he’s practically bumbling through our conversation.” She paused for a while. “Mac assured me she’d found a man that would be _exactly_ to my taste, and that for sure is not him.”

Her eyes lingered over Jack, making him feel all warm and flustered.

“… But it may well be you.”

Jack shook himself out of her thrall and cast a glance towards the table he’d left.

“Well, now that you suggest it… it seems my Miss Williams is looking rather deliberately at your Mr Collins, doesn’t she?”

Miss Fisher cast a stealthy glance, using the corner of her eyes in the most efficient way he’d ever seen. 

“I bet you a dinner that they’re actually a couple.”

Jack snorted.

“You may very well be right. Still, I wouldn’t mind betting against you. I don’t think I’d mind losing all that much.” He winked. He really had had quite a lot of wine, hadn’t he? This wasn’t his usual reticence.

Miss Fisher’s red lips curved into a smile at his reply. The door to the bathroom opened to let a lady out. Miss Fisher was next in line, but she didn’t seem to care about it anymore. Instead, she leaned forward to whisper in Jack’s ear. 

“So, what do we do? Do we pretend like nothing and go back to our dates? Do we call them out on it? Or do we just elope?”

He eyed her mischievous smile and the twinkle in her eyes. She must be the most alluring woman he’d ever met. 

“I wouldn’t mind an elopement, but how do we then settle our bet?”

Her face turned mock serious.

“You’re right. And it would be very impolite to leave our dates hanging.”

“I have a suggestion,” he said, thinking quick on his feet just as when he was working a case. “How about we tell them about our suspicions and end the dates? And then we could regroup at the bar over the street in half an hour? I think it’s called ‘Mr Butler’s’.”

“That’s an excellent suggestion, Inspector Robinson,” Miss Fisher replied. “Just don’t think this will in any way get you out of our wager. If they are a couple, you’ll still owe me a dinner.”

Jack smiled; he could feel the warmth of it blooming all over his own face.

“I think I wouldn’t mind all that much, Miss Fisher.”

Then they went back to their tables.


End file.
